To establish a communication session with a wireless access network, a user operates a wireless communication device to communicate in a wireless protocol with a wireless access node. Once the communication session is established, the wireless access node exchanges the user communications with other systems and communication networks in order to provide a communication service, such as telephony voice communications or data access over the Internet. The user operates the wireless communication device by interacting with a user interface of the device. In some examples, the user interface could comprise a touch display that enables the user to provide user input commands by physically touching the display screen using a finger or stylus. Some wireless communication devices may also comprise user interfaces that are responsive to other user inputs besides touch displays, such as physical buttons, voice commands, movement or orientation of the device detected by accelerometers, and other user input techniques.
Wireless communication devices typically have a feature to disable the user interface. For example, the user may lock the display screen of the user interface by physically turning off the screen, or the display screen may be configured to lock automatically after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Typically, the user may set a password, pin number, unlock pattern, or some other security measure to prevent unauthorized access to the wireless communication device.